Day 5- Menlo Park to Fairfield

Thursday morning we said goodbye to Lucy, loaded our stuff back on the V-Strom and headed for Fairfield. It was a nice short 80 mile ride but plenty California-ness to last me a long time.

We toured the Budweiser brewing facility (at 10 AM!) complete with two (fairly) healthy samples. I was a little disappointed in how much we were shown on the tour but it was interesting anyway. (Can’t wait to compare it to the Coors factory when we pass through Golden, CO someday.) Forrest also indulged me in a tour of the Jelly Belly factory–it’s kind of cool but be prepared for lots and lots of kids and a nice sickly sweet smell everywhere, I’d recommend skipping the tour and just buying Belly Flops (cheap messed up beans).

From there we got some lunch–my first In-And-Out burger!–and then rode to the Hospitality House. Forrest’s friends Sandy and Sue were very welcoming and I was quite impressed with the dinner Sue whipped up for her family, us, and the assorted Air Force guys who seem to consider their house a home-away-from-home (Forrest said he certainly felt this way when he was stationed there). We played some volleyball (so much fun!), got showers, socialized for awhile and crashed.